Buildings, such as homes, office buildings, warehouses, factories, and the like, often use load control systems for security, networking and communications, safety and load control. These systems typically include devices installed on (or behind) a drop ceiling, such as security cameras, wireless routers, speakers, smoke alarms, sprinklers, occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, temperature sensors, etc. Many of these devices may include indicator lights used to communicate a status of the device to the user and the installer of the device. The size and quantity of these devices may be distracting to users of the space, and accordingly, design efforts may attempt to minimize the size of devices which are visibly mounted to the ceiling.
One difficulty with minimizing device size is that many of these devices contain one or more antennas for communication via radio-frequency (RF) with other devices in the system. Antennas which communicate at low or sub-gigahertz frequencies may be several inches in length in order to achieve excellent antenna gain, which may cause the device to be unsightly and distracting to the user. Methods to mitigate the undesirable appearance may include reducing the size of the antenna, or installing all or part of the device or the antenna in a hidden area (i.e., behind the ceiling tile, or in an electrical closet). However, such methods may compromise the antenna gain, thereby reducing the communication range of the antenna. Accordingly, there is a need for a device design with a sufficiently large antenna to allow for excellent antenna gain without drawing undue attention to the device.